snugglekitty

This weekend I made the best carrot salad I've ever made. Possibly the best carrot salad I've ever had. If you've ever wished that carrot salad would be more like carrot cake, this is the recipe for you.

1/2 bag baby carrots
handful golden raisins
handful walnuts
2 T dried unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup water
olive oil
raw apple cider vinegar
Dijon mustard
ginger
salt
honey

Slice the carrots finely into a bowl. Microwave or parbroil in water for 30 seconds. Pour water into a small saucepan. Add olive oil, vinegar, mustard, ginger, salt and honey to taste. (I know that's imprecise, but these things are personal! I probably used 1 Tbsp of olive oil, two of vinegar, a teaspoon each of mustard and honey, and just a sprinkle of salt.) Add raisins, walnuts, and coconuts to carrots. Cook down dressing mixture until it is a thickness and flavor you like. Add to salad and serve warm. Serves two as an appetizer. Prep time is around 15 minutes.

Here are some dairy-replacement items (and other unusual protein sources) that I have tried in the past week, while on my elimination diet, that I think are quite good. I want to again thank trouble4hire for helping me figure these out and encouraging me to pick up as much as I wanted to try out. That was brilliant.

Whole Earth Natural Spread. This is about a gazillion times better than Spectrum. I can hardly tell the difference between that and real butter. Best of all, it melts on toast.
Soya Kaas Monterey Jack Style. This tastes and acts like a processed dairy cheese. Much better than their mozarella style. I would like to try the cheddar.
Homemade whitefish salad. The store kind generally has eggs. I got a package of smoked whitefish, removed skin and bones after some false starts, and blended it with a small amount of water, lime juice, and artichoke pesto. (Postproduction, some oil was also added.) EXTREMELY tasty. I made it to have on bagels but I'm also looking forward to trying it on crackers as a pate.
Soy cream cheese. Frankly, I am positive I could not tell the difference in a blind taste test. Also, it comes in a small container, and I'm happy about that. I think it would make great frosting, too. Vegan carrotcake, anyone?
Soy yogurt. Again, I couldn't tell the difference. Alas, I was unable to find a rice-less version in "plain" flavor to use in savory dishes, but that's life.
Tahini-based babaganoush. Often, I can't have babaganoush because it's based in hummus, and I can't have chickpeas. The tahini kind is safe for me, full of protein, and very very tasty.
Hemp milk. I tried this to replace soymilk, which is where most of the soy used to happen in my diet. Since I'm having a lot of soy in other forms these days, I wanted to try something different. This is different! It is about equivalent to soymilk for stuff like cereal (a more watery texture, like skim milk instead of two percent, but not chalky) and it is better than soymilk in cooking (no chalky taste or texture). So far the only place I'm not happy with it is as a chai base - it seems to not have enough fat for that.

There have been many others, but those have been my favorites so far. I will keep y'all apprised as more come along.

The last meal that I ate before starting the elimination diet was at Solea, a tapas restaurant in Waltham. The perfect place for gustatory excess via the small plate method. I was delighted to enjoy the dinner in the company of good friends.

( And I gave it my best. )

This morning I put away all of the decaf teas and brought out herbal teas that I don't drink all the time. (I don't drink caffeinated tea, so the regular teas won't bother me to look at.) I was happy to find a number of herbal blends I hadn't had in a while, like Roobois Chai and Raspberry. For breakfast, my first meal on the elimination diet, I consumed:

a banana
two pieces of toast from When Pigs Fly - a new special bread with almonds, coconut, papaya, and dates - with apricot jam
a cup of Orange Ginger Mint tea with bergamot
a glass of water

In an hour, I am leaving to go shopping for food I can eat with trouble4hire. Wish me luck.

My goal: to make the best vegan meal I've ever made. (I'm enough of a realist not to have hoped to make the best vegan meal I've ever tasted. I'm good, but not that good.)
My inspiration: Hangawi, the vegan Asian restaurant in NYC I visited last October. (Thanks to trouble4hire for tracking it down.)
My grade: A+!

I often wish that meals with multiple components had their recipes broken down into their components, so I've done that here. They are listed in order of cooking time, so if you're making the whole thing, do the first part first, etc.

( Five pans. So worth it. )

I've seen that you enjoy developing your own (tasty) recipes. Do you like cookbooks or recipe websites? If so, how do you use them?

Over the course of two days, I made a variation on this recipe. For the first part of my answer to this question, I'm going to include a little explanation of how I came to make what I made in this case, which is pretty typical of my process. The main difference from most of my recipes is that usually I alter them more, which is why I don't usually post recipe links. But more on that tomorrow.


( Part I of How I Use Recipes )

mrpet has recently started buying us frozen fish fillets in bulk, in addition to the frozen shrimp we buy. What a wonderful low-cost option. Expect to see more flounder, mahi-mahi, and tilapia recipes featured here in the next few months.

I started out thinking that this was a stir fry, and it was yummy with quinoa and feta, but a more divine purpose was intended for it.

( Read more... )

I woke up yesterday thinking for some reason that I really needed to make coconut carrot soup. For me, the desire to cook is a sign of emotional well-being, so I decided to do it even though I am still sick. First, I reality-checked this plan by checking the internet. It seemed that people DO actually make coconut carrot soup, after all, and we had almost all of the necessary ingredients in the house, so I decided to give it a try. Special thanks to trouble4hire, who showed up at the perfect moment with needed scallions and got a bowl of soup for her trouble.

( Read more... )

This is a relatively quick soup, since it's made in a small batch. There's also not a lot of prep time. The downside is that it only makes a few servings - probably three to four as an appetizer, or two as a main dish. I was limited by what we had in the house, but it would be pretty easy to scale up.

This is the sort of light supper that is really fast to put together just for yourself, and also still delicious.

First Course:

A Citrus-Beet Salad

( Read more... )

Second Course:

A Pear Brie Sandwich

( Read more... )

The world of experimental cooking is a dangerous place. We all know this. When we are improvising, we may be lucky enough to wind up with a creation that is fabulous and delicious. Most of the time, we wind up with something that we'll still eat and not hate. But occaisionally we're not so lucky, right? Right. Well, that happened to me twice recently. Both times it was with soup, and both times, I was able to redeem it.

( I was concerned about throwing good money after bad, but... )

Your soup can be saved! Especially if you have sweeties standing by to help.

Last week's casserole was such a success, I had to do it again! Today's casserole was polenta with squash and kale, and very well received. I couldn't find the recipe I wanted, so I just made one up.

( You know you want to. )